Hamilton thinks he made the wrong SQ3 call in Singapore

Lewis Hamilton thinks he chose the wrong SQ3 run plan in Singapore, where the FIA’s provisional Sprint Qualifying classification placed him sixth.

After the session, Hamilton said: “We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice, and I think I got that wrong.” He was among a small handful of drivers to set an early lap in SQ3 rather than wait until the closing moments, when track conditions were at their best.

Hamilton said he had pace in the first two qualifying segments and that the car had felt good on the mediums. On his final SQ3 lap on softs, by contrast, he described the car as very oversteery, with grip at the front but none at the rear. He could not tell whether the rear tyres were not ready or overheating; a balance issue was another possibility he raised.

Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc was third in the provisional classification with a 1:31.399, 0.303 seconds quicker than Hamilton’s 1:31.702.